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COMMENTARY
Apr 8, 2002

The 'corporate governance' debate

Over the past decade, "corporate governance" has come to replace "industrial policy" and "Japanese-style management" as the key factor to explain Japanese business performance.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 7, 2002

Slamming on heaven's doors

I prefer my punk in a club. It's an aural thing: Big metal power chords sound really bitchin' in a huge place, but that fast, choppy stuff just gets lost. So I wasn't really psyched about seeing Green Day at the Saitama Super Arena, but my man Toshi promised it would be "better than Motorhead at the...
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Apr 7, 2002

Think wild and feisty, think Sauvignon Blanc

In these budget-conscious times, it pays to be a wine nerd. When you sense a hot trend, run in the other direction. Dare to be contrary. The world's greatest wine bargains come from places and grape varieties that are temporarily out of fashion or simply overlooked.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2002

Bush's foreign aid revolution

WASHINGTON -- Just as U.S. President Richard Nixon was able to use his conservative credentials to fend off critics and go to China, President George W. Bush has just announced a policy change that Republicans have opposed for years, but that is long overdue. Over a period of a few years, Bush would...
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2002

House of Councilors rejects censure motion against Takebe

The House of Councilors rejected on Friday a nonbinding censure motion against farm minister Tsutomu Takebe, but New Komeito's decision to abstain from the vote underlined the flagging unity within the Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling coalition.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 6, 2002

Nora Marzuki

Of the Asia-Pacific Ladies Friendship Society, Nora Marzuki said, "One of its main objectives is to raise funds for charity, and this is very dear to my heart. . . . In this day and age, when there are so many unfortunate and disastrous events, our efforts in raising funds can go a long way towards alleviating...
EDITORIALS
Apr 6, 2002

Law for Okinawa's prosperity

Thirty years after its return to Japanese control in May 1972, Okinawa continues to struggle with its twin problems: the heavy presence of U.S. military bases and the relatively low level of industrial development. While the base problem is likely to persist for a long time to come, the drive for economic...
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2002

Li Peng slams 'axis of evil' speech, U.S. hegemony threat

During separate talks Friday with leaders of two opposition parties, top Chinese legislator Li Peng slammed the "axis of evil" speech made in January by U.S. President George W. Bush, according to lawmakers.
EDITORIALS
Apr 5, 2002

Secure food safety

Never before, perhaps, has a government advisory panel made such a scathing attack on public policy. The final report on bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, popularly known as mad cow disease, submitted Tuesday by a 10-member investigative committee, points out that the government made a "grave...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 5, 2002

Fruit fly

* Japanese name: Shojobae * Scientific name: Drosophila melanogaster * Description: This is a tiny (3-mm) fly, with red eyes and one pair of wings. It is almost too small to notice, yet the fruit fly is one of the world's most important organisms. Study of the fruit fly led directly to the science...
COMMENTARY
Apr 4, 2002

U.S. provocations leave China guessing

HONG KONG -- Little more than a month after U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Beijing seemed to have laid the groundwork for a more stable and cooperative relationship between the United States and China, ties between the two countries are again in danger of unraveling as Washington openly moves...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 4, 2002

Tony Blair struggles to fill Margaret Thatcher's giant shoes

LONDON -- She has been out of power for a dozen years, but former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has remained a formidable political force while her contemporaries on the world scene have faded from view.
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2002

Court wants ex-minors to talk

The Tokyo High Court decided Wednesday to question two of three defendants in a civil damages suit who were accused of murdering a 15-year-old girl in Saitama Prefecture in 1985, when they were minors.
BUSINESS
Apr 4, 2002

China rife with opportunities: Li

The growing Chinese market presents huge investment opportunities for Japanese companies, Li Peng, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, said Wednesday in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Apr 4, 2002

Forecasts of an early exit fade

LONDON -- Those who said the war in Afghanistan was over have had to eat their words.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2002

Group targets family ties via storytelling

As soon as the men would arrive on their big black bikes, children would cheer, set aside their toys and swarm around them even before they began sounding their wooden clappers. A signature large wooden box with openings and drawers was mounted on the back of their bicycles.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 4, 2002

Sea lampreys excited by eau de liver bile

The sea lamprey is a parasitic, eel-like fish with a fearsome, tooth-covered "oral disk" instead of a regular mouth. When attacking, the lamprey rears its head, and clamps its oral disk onto the skin of other fish. With its grasping tongue, it feeds on blood and body fluids for an average of 76 hours,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 4, 2002

'Park on a possum' is far easier said than done

Back in 1848, some bright spark had a "good" idea. Let's import common brush-tailed possums from Australia and fur-farm them in New Zealand, they thought. They followed up on that idea with action -- action that New Zealand's environment has been paying for ever since.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2002

Man dies following sex-change operation

OSAKA -- A 35-year-old man from Tokyo died several hours after undergoing a sex-change operation in February at an Osaka clinic suspected of malpractice, sources close to the case said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2002

Eruption greets visiting Miyake evacuees

A minor volcanic eruption occurred Tuesday morning on Miyake Island, just as some of the island's evacuated residents were in the midst of a brief return visit, the Meteorological Agency said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / J-POPSICLE
Apr 3, 2002

Still chasing their dream

And then there were two . . . Dreams Come True keyboard player Takahiro Nishikawa's announcement on March 24 that he had left the pop trio wasn't all that surprising. For a long time Nishikawa had been very much the odd man out in the DCT lineup, especially after his involvement in a car accident a few...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Apr 3, 2002

In the realms of the spirits

"Ghosts, we hope, may be always with us -- that is, never too far out of the reach of fancy." So wrote British novelist Elizabeth Bowen in the preface to her "Second Ghost Book," published in 1952.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 3, 2002

Painting our inheritance

Traveling to 46 World Heritage cities in 18 countries is impressive enough on its own, but painting them is another thing entirely. Yet, Ecuador's noted contemporary painter Oswaldo Munoz Marino has done just that.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan